On 4th August 2013, a piece of news, which entitled “China falls for the Downton Abbey effect”, was posted by The Daily Express in UK. The news first reported that Downton Abbey makes tens of thousands of Chinese middle classes crazy and fascinated because of the luxury life of Grantham Earl’s family who is served by a group of servants in a magnificent country estate. The ITV period drama, “is a hit with educated and aspirational Chinese who want to emulate the British way of life” (Buckland, 2013).
After reading the whole content of the news, although it admits that China is becoming stronger and playing an increasingly important role all over the world, it is inevitably full of irony between the lines. Is it only for satire or is there political implication and media tendency? Those are the ethical questions we need to consider.
This news, possibly, does not have legal issues in either society or media practice. In addition, both The Daily Express and the editor who wrote this news need to be judged in two aspects: responsibilities and ethics.
Responsibility of media
From media responsibility aspect, two issues arise in this news. The first is objectivity, the foundation of each news report, is called “the defining norm” of the journalism (Skovsgaard, et al., 2013: 24). It is partially and unilaterally for the editor to draw the conclusion that young, fashionable, educated Chinese elites (or middle classes) pay great attention to status and hierarchy only from the statistic of 160 million Chinese viewers who watching Downton Abbey.
The article also reported that a series of British events or festivals held in China achieved a great success. It is true that Chinese people are interested in British culture, but when consider about the less amount of times of those events, how can huge amount of educated and fashionable Chinese elites absent? Thus, to report that the success is because Chinese people love status is not objective.
Another issue that arises in this news report is accuracy. As one of the “journalism-related virtues” presented by Bernard Williams, accuracy is an important point for media practitioners to be cautious to ensure the resources are reliable and not false (Phillips, et al., 2010: 53). In addition, The Editors' Code of Practice also declares that media practitioners should avoid publishing inaccurate information (PCC, 2012). Richard Craig, a business man who is interviewed in this news, said the number of Chinese middle classes who are wealthy increased dramatically from a million to 400 million during a decade (Buckland, 2013). The question is that where did Craig find the statistic and how could the editor know if this statistic is correct?
In general, the classification standard of middle classes is complicated. It needs to be considered by different situation in different countries, even in different areas of one country. As a crucial part of social base, the middle classes of China are “far from clear” (Chen & Goodman, 2013: 2). In addition, there is no exact statistics of the number of Chinese middle classes that is able to be found on the website of National Bureau of Statistics of China. Thus, it is obvious that the sources and the accuracy of the data need to be questioned. Ethical issue arises in media practice
This news report is unethical when the virtue ethics of Aristotle, Utilitarianism and Kantian ethics are considered.
According to Nichomachean Ethics, Aristotle (2004: 41) thinks that everything has a degree, neither excessive nor deficient, is “a mean condition” which could further influence the act of practitioners if it is reflected in media. Most of the Chinese people are unfamiliar with Western countries, additionally, they are curious about foreign cultures. Compared with the well-known America, the United Kingdom seems to be more mysterious and unknown to most Chinese aspiring people.
Owing to the local culture of
